2013

WAGERING on Saturday’s Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes certainly suggested a runaway victory was in the offing.

Indeed it was, only not by the filly most of those in attendance at Belmont Park or viewing elsewhere most likely figured on. Close Hatches, who finished three places behind Dreaming Of Julia in the Kentucky Oaks, led home the 1/5 favourite, while reaching the post all alone in the filly classic.

Toasting and Sister State took up the pacesetting duties as John Velazquez put Dreaming Of Julia in a close tracking spot off the top pair. Unable to continue her forward progress on the far turn, Dreaming Of Julia steadily lost her position and trailed the five-horse field into the final quarter mile. All this time, Close Hatches swept up ahead and, while remaining well off the rail, turned the Mother Goose into a one-horse race.

The filly’s seventh in the Kentucky Oaks is proving more and more an aberration on her otherwise fine record. The Bill Mott pupil won the Gazelle, en route to earning her spot in the Oaks field, then came back to place second in the shorter one-mile Acorn. Dreaming Of Julia regrouped in time to gain second near the finish from Marathon Lady, indicating either a step up in trip or change in riding tactics will serve her well.

The A.P. Indy filly, who now appears to shy when asked to run through a seam between horses, has had back-to-back off trips following her runaway win at Gulfstream Park. Her stablemate, and Kentucky Oaks upset winner Princess Of Sylmar, is a fresh horse for the summer and fall, bringing another face into the championship picture.

The July 20th Coaching Club American Oaks over nine furlongs at Saratoga could sort the picture out a little. The Alabama, the filly crop’s lone chance to go 10 furlongs on dirt, could be more to Dreaming Of Julia’s favour.

The Mother Goose also marks the first major stateside win for Juddmonte since the surprising announcement that Khalid Abdullah would reduce by some degree his globally influential breeding operation. Close Hatches was produced from the Storm Cat mare Rising Tornado. Moreover, her sire, First Defence, a graded-stakes winning homebred, stands at Juddmonte’s Kentucky location.

[Close Hatches continued to race at four, and when she retired to the breeding shed had won nine times, all at three and four years of age, and her Grade 1 tally included the Apple Blossom Handicap, Cotillion Stakes, Personal Ensign Stakes and Ogden Phipps Stakes. She also ran second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

At stud, Close Hatches is the dam of two winners, and she got off to the perfect start when her son Tacitus (Tapit) won three Grade 2 races, while he was runner-up in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes, Travers Stakes and third in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby]

Cox star proves to be Lethal

2013

EXPERTS are fond of saying that there is not much between the top sprinters, and that even good handicappers can give them a run for their money.

That did not appear to be the case on Royal Ascot’s final day, as Clive Cox’s grey Lethal Force led soon after the start in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes, and went clear to beat Society Rock by two lengths. The Golden Shaheen third, Krypton Factor, filled the same position again, ahead of Tom Hogan’s Gordon Lord Byron.

Logic cannot always be applied to starting prices, and it was strange indeed that Lethal Force was allowed to start at 11/1 with Society Rock, who had beaten him by a whisker in the Duke of York on the Knavesmire last time, sent off at 4/1 favourite. James Fanshawe’s six-year-old is a grand sprinter who won the Diamond Jubilee two years ago, and added the Haydock Sprint Cup last summer, but he can dwell at the start and did so again.

At York, Kieren Fallon had him close enough a furlong out to join issue, but this time Lethal Force, well ridden by Adam Kirby, was always too far ahead as Society Rock rattled through to beat the others easily enough.

Cox, an amiable handler and very good with the press, would not object to being called a journeyman jumps jockey. He is anything but as a trainer, and this was his fourth Group 1 victory, though there was no intention to make virtually all the running.

“The race was completely back to front,” he said. “I wanted to hold him up, but he hit the gate and got into his stride. He ended up doing it the hard way but he’s pretty tough. He’s improved so much from three to four. He was just a frame at three, but has filled out now and he’s the real deal.”

Lethal Force stays six furlongs with ease and is also a winner over seven. Some regarded it as a fluke when he won the Hungerford at Newbury at 25/1 last year, but that was not the case. He needed blinkers to help him concentrate that day, but the ‘blinds’ were not required this time. He was beating three former Group 1 winners, and may well end up as champion sprinter, especially as he could even drop back to five furlongs for the Prix de l’Abbaye, a race Cox won with Gilt Edge Girl a few years ago.

More immediately, the obvious target would normally be the Group 1 Darley July Cup at the big Newmarket meeting, but that is not bound to be his course. “I’m not sure it would be his track,” the trainer added.

“He likes a level track and an incline, but the undulations might not suit him. We have Reckless Abandon (fifth in the King’s Stand) as well, and I’m sure he’ll come good again. We’ll take it a step at a time.”

When the dust settles, the July Cup is still likely to figure prominently in the winner’s schedule, and it looks like being a tremendous contest. Society Rock, unsuited by desperate going when third last year, is almost certain to be there, together with Krypton Factor who came straight on from Dubai and may well improve a shade for the Ascot outing. The Australian challenger Sea Siren faded into eighth last week, but is Coolmore-owned and will be with Aidan O’Brien by the time they line up for the feature at headquarters. Presumably Maarek, who found the ground firming up all too rapidly here, and Gordon Lord Byron will also be considered.

For Kirby this was a richly deserved first triumph at the highest level. He made up his mind immediately when Lethal Force hit the box running, and then kicked hard again from two furlongs out, effectively putting the race to bed. His only worry is weight, because he struggles to get down below 8st 12lb, ruling out many important handicaps. He is both talented and hard-working and it is to be hoped he wins his battle with the scales.

[Lethal Force, a son of Dark Angel, went on to add the Group 1 July Cup to his tally of victories, and retired to stud at Cheveley Park Stud where he was based until the close of the 2019 season. He then moved to France. He only sired a pair of stakes winners, the best being the 2020 Group 1 Commonwealth Cup winner Golden Horde. His other stakes winner was in India.

One of Lethal Force’s daughters bred the recent Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes-placed filly Beautiful Diamond (Twilight Son)].

Sindon breaks his duck in Irish Derby

1958

IN spite of a heavy downpour of rain in the morning, a huge crowd turned up at the Curragh for the Irish Derby fixture on Wednesday last, and spectators were treated to a thrilling race for Ireland’s premier flat racing prize.

In a desperately close finish, the maiden, Sindon, carrying the colours of Mrs A.B. Biddle, who owns him in partnership with his trainer, Michael Dawson, won by the shortest of short heads from the favourite, Paddy’s Point, also runner-up in the Epsom Derby. Champion jockey Liam Ward had the mount on Sindon and, like the owner and trainer, he was gaining his first Irish Derby success. Ward rode a very fine race indeed.

Before the race it was feared that Sindon might not quite get the trip, especially in such heavy ground, and through the race Ward gave him every chance. Even when he hit the front a furlong out, he continued to wait, and rallied him with just one sharp ‘reminder’ when Paddy’s Point looked like getting on terms near the post.

Paddy’s Point, who started favourite, had to come around several horses in the straight to make his bid, but stories to the effect that he was almost knocked down in running were readily discounted by the film of the race, which I viewed with Paddy’s Point’s rider, G.W. Robinson, after the race.

Sindon thus became the first maiden to win the race since Piccadilly in 1944. Sindon had never been out of the first four in all his previous races, most of them in ‘hot’ company, and on Wednesday he started at 100/8.